Bengaluru: The state spokesman of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS) Mohan Gowda on Tuesday denied his involvement in introducing the two accused in the sensational Gauri Lankesh murder case – K.T. Naveen Kumar and Sujeet Kumar alias Praveen – at a convention of Hindu organisations in Ponda in South Goa in June 2017.

Gowda’s name cropped up in Naveen’s ‘signed voluntary’ statement to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is part of the first chargesheet the SIT submitted recently in the Gauri murder case. Flanked by founder-president of Sri Ram Sene Pramod Muthalik and advocates N.P. Amrutesh of Karnataka High Court and Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, president of ‘Hindu Vidhidnya Parishada’ (HVP), Gowda said that he is willing to take a lie-detector test to establish the truth. “I do not know Praveen at all. I know Naveen Kumar for the last two years in connection with our work, to propagate and safeguard Hinduism and Hindu values. We attended the Hindu dharma jagruti sabha that Naveen had organised in Maddur in November 2017. Earlier, I had invited him to the Goa convention in which he had spoken about Hindutva. It was telecast live. There was nothing objectionable or inflammatory in his speech as has been indicated in the chargesheet.

“I am willing to undertake the narco analysis test to prove my point that I don’t know Praveen, provided Dinesh Amin Mattu, the then media adviser to the former chief minister, agrees to take the test on his ‘role’ in killing journalist Rohit Chakratirtha for his Right wing views. Independent MLA from Gujarat – Jignesh Mevani should also take the narco-test for his alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots and a conspiracy to assassinate PM Narendra Modi,” said Gowda to the media.

Muthalik slammed the SIT for targetting Hindu “patriots” and Amrutesh said that they will file a contempt case against Cottonpete police for not allowing the lawyers of the accused to meet their clients in police custody. The SIT arrested Amol Kale (40) along with Manohar Edve (30), Praveen (37) and Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep for their alleged involvement in the Gauri murder case. They are now in police custody.